Author: Kacie Cotter-Harrigan

The 20th President of the United States, James Garfield, was born in a log cabin in Ohio and was mule driver on the Ohio & Erie Canal. A graduate of Williams College, he later became an attorney and a skilled orator, and was elected to Congress in 1862. He then served as a Major General during the Civil War. In the 1880 election Garfield conducted a Front Porch Campaign and narrowly defeated another Civil War General and Gettysburg hero, Winfield Scott Hancock.

Charles Julius Guiteau was an American writer and attorney. Guiteau felt, falsely so, that his actions had contributed to Garfield’s successful campaign and sought a consulship position to either Vienna or Paris. Failing in his pursuit of this honor he decided to shoot Garfield, which he did, wounding him, on July 2, 1881. Garfield succumbed to the wound on September 19, 1881.

John K. Porter was a Waterford, New York attorney. Born in Waterford on January 12, 1819, he was educated in both the Waterford and Lansingburgh Academies, later graduating from Union College in 1837. Upon his death, the Albany Law Journal stated; In our opinion, Mr. Porter comes nearer to being a genius than any other man in our bar.

How did destiny bring together this former Ohio canaller, a crazed and disgruntled office seeker, and a near-genius Waterford native and lawyer?

John’s father, Dr. Elijah Porter, wanted John to follow in his footsteps. John was not interested in becoming a doctor but made a deal with his father that he would study medicine for six months. If he did not show a talent for it, his father would permit him to study law. At the end of that period John’s father said; “Son I don’t know what kind of lawyer you will make, but you’ll make a mighty poor physician, so I will let you study law.”

In 1846 John Porter, at the age of 27, was among those chosen to represent Saratoga County at the New York State Constitutional Convention. John became a leading lawyer in Waterford with a remarkable intellect, who was able to practice, in nearly every branch of the law. His skills soon made it possible for him to play on a larger stage.

In early 1865, Porter was appointed to the New York Court of Appeals to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Henry R. Selden. In November 1865, he was elected on the Republican ticket to the remaining six years of Selden’s term, but resigned on December 31, 1867, and returned to private practice, now in New York City.

His record as an attorney would have made Dr. Porter proud. Son John successfully defended Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, in a libel case brought by the Assembly Speaker DeWitt C. Littlejohn. In 1875, he represented Henry Ward Beecher in his case against Theodore Tilton, who, in one of the most scandalous cases of the post-civil war era, accused Beecher of adultery with Tilton’s wife. The jury could not reach a verdict. In February 1876, Porter defended Grant’s military secretary Orville E. Babcock, who had been indicted during the prosecution of the Whiskey Ring frauds. Babcock was acquitted.

In 1876, two weeks after voters went to the polls to choose between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden, the New York State Bar Association was founded, and Porter became the Association’s first president. He challenged the new organization to “exercise a collective and permanent influence” on the great issues of the day.

At this point in our story, late 1881, President Garfield was in Lake View Cemetery in Ohio, Guiteau is in a Washington D.C. jail awaiting trial, and the Honorable John K. Porter was retired, back home in Waterford.

The National Park Service reported the following on the trial of Charles J. Guiteau; At trial, the assassin Guiteau stated that “I did not kill the President. The doctors did that. I merely shot him.” The trial lasted nearly two months and often had a circus-like atmosphere. The U. S. Attorney General, Wayne MacVeagh, put together a 19th-century dream team to prosecute Guiteau, among them John Porter of Waterford.

Porter was not a specialist, he was a laborious, keen, strongly-equipped man in nearly every branch of the law. He was a formidable cross-examiner and a trustworthy counselor. Arthur and MacVeagh deemed him necessary to the team. On cross-examination, prosecutor Porter tried to suggest to jurors that what the defense claimed was evidence of insanity was instead only evidence of sin. He forced Guiteau to concede that he thought the assassination would increase sales of his autobiography. He demanded to know whether Guiteau was familiar with the Biblical commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” Guiteau responded that in this case “the divine authority overcame the written law.” He insisted, “I am a man of destiny as much as the Savior, or Paul, or Martin Luther.”

Judge Porter’s cross-examination of Guiteau was so effective in defeating Guiteau’s insanity defense that Francis L. Wellman gave it a chapter in his classic work The Art of Cross-Examination. In its December 2, 1881, headline, the New York Times characterized the cross-examination as “Guiteau’s Day of Torture.”

As a result of the trial, the prosecution team won a conviction after Guiteau went through a series of defense attorneys, most arguing an insanity defense. Guiteau was found guilty in January 1882 and met the hangman on June 30, 1882. By that time John Porter had returned to his retirement in Waterford. According to The New York Times obituary, Porter’s “devotion to this case wore out his energy, and after its conclusion, he almost wholly gave up the practice of law.” Porter died on April 11, 1892, in Waterford.

Russ Vandervoort is the Waterford Town Historian and leader of the Waterford Canal and Towpath Society and can be reached at russvandervoort@gmail.com.

Dr. John R. MacElroy was a country doctor who served the residents of the Jonesville area for over 60 years. He began his medical practice in Jonesville at age 22 in 1894, and continued to care for his patients until he died in 1954 at age 81. He was known to generations of Jonesville patients, hundreds of whom he brought into life.

Dr. MacElroy was also very interested in farm animals. He ran a large dairy farm of 140 acres on the road now named for him in Jonesville, and was also fond of animal breeding. The physician exhibited livestock in the Saratoga County Fair for 50 years and served on the board of directors of Saratoga County Agricultural Society for 35 years. He was also chairman of the annual horse show for many years, and judged numerous animal shows.

In December of 1905, all of Clifton Park was abuzz about a rooster that continued to live for days after having its head cut off. Naturally, Dr. MacElroy was curious to see such a strange animal (if it indeed existed), and the doctor along with the nurse who later became his wife journeyed via horse and buggy to the farm in Burnt Hills where the headless rooster was causing quite a stir.

In a memoir given to me by Mary Hubbard of Clifton Park, Jennie M. Quivey (1893-1995) described this unusual bird. Her family lived on a farm on Goode Street, about one and a half miles from the village of Burnt Hills. When she was just twelve years old, on November 26, 1905, her father I. P. Quivey killed some chickens to take to market. The heads were cut off with a hatchet as was the custom, and the wriggling, twisting bodies were thrown some distance away. One of these happened to be a Plymouth Rock rooster, and although headless, it refused to die. Unbelievable as it was, the rooster soon began strutting his stuff.

The farmer was of course surprised, and lifting the body placed it in a warm place in his hen house. He picked up all the other chickens and returning to the hen house was astonished to find that the headless rooster was still alive. It was promptly named “O’dell.” The rooster was alive the next day and again on the following day and what was the more remarkable, it took in water and food through its esophagus.

News of the headless rooster spread and Dr. MacElroy, who at that time was serving as Supervisor for the Town of Clifton Park, went to see O’dell. His astonishment prompted him to tell the story at a meeting of the Town Board, and they immediately pronounced Dr. MacElroy as being the “biggest liar around.” The Board meeting was adjourned and the members went to Burnt Hills to see this headless rooster for themselves.

Dr. MacElroy invited Dr. Donnelly of Stillwater to witness the headless rooster, and photographers from Ballston came to take photographs. Dr. MacElroy indicated that he would have the rooster taken to the Albany Medical College. Articles about the bird appeared in the Schenectady newspapers on December 16 and 18, 1905, and it was exhibited at the Schenectady chicken show that winter.

Dr. A. G. Wicks, a veterinary from Schenectady, was curious and came to the Burnt Hills farm as well. While he couldn’t answer with certainty the reasons for O’dell’s new lease on life, he assured everyone that the rooster was in no pain. The rooster could eat corn, drink water and was fond of mutton broth. The food and water was placed in the bird’s esophagus, which as soon as it felt the food began the half involuntary motion of swallowing which forced the food into the crop. On nice days the rooster was allowed to walk out in the yard and except for the uncertainty of its steps on account of not being able to see, would act the same as the other fowls.

O’dell might have lived indefinitely, but he caught a cold, developed pneumonia and died sometime in March 1906. In January of 1938, Jennie Quivey wrote to Dr. MacElroy in Jonesville to see if he remembered his visit to her family farm to see the headless rooster. Dr. MacElroy responded on February 3 with this eyewitness account:

“We went to see the cause of all the weird tales that were being passed from mouth to mouth, and appearing in a rather skeptical way in the local papers. After tying and blanketing the horse we went in the house, got warm and then were escorted to the woodshed, where by the light of a kitchen lamp held by your mother, your father got the rooster out of the box coop and set him down on the shed floor. His head had been cleanly severed at a slight angle running from the front of the wattles upward and backward leaving about one third of the comb in tact. The edges of the wound gaped rather widely, showed evidence of healing nicely, leaving a fairly large opening into the esophagus. While slightly uncertain in his gait, he walked about, carrying himself very erect, and showed plenty of desire for food when both of us dropped corn into his gullet at intervals, he reaching and stretching his neck upwards after each morsel was swallowed.”

The next time you use the old expression to describe someone running hither, dither and yon and being overly busy yet accomplishing nothing as a person running around like a chicken with its head cut off, remember the saga of poor O’dell who evidently was not phased in the least about losing his head. It actually prolonged his life for a little longer and gave him some notoriety. After all, we are still talking about this headless rooster one hundred years later.

John Scherer is the Clifton Park Town Historian and also Senior Historian Emeritus at the New York State Museum. He holds a Master’s degree in Museum Studies and American Folk Life from the Cooperstown Graduate Program. John can be reached at jlscherer@aol.com

Time is often referred to as a human construct, but time zones are definitely man-made, and they have a direct connection to Charles Dowd of Saratoga Springs and the month of November, when standard time began in 1883, and 21 years later when time ran out for Charles.

Local time once was set by the noon mark. Noon was defined to be the time at which the sun was directly overhead. This meant, for every approximately 69 miles travelled west, the moment of noon differed by four minutes. For example, the clocks in Boston were set about three minutes ahead of clocks in Worcester, MA.

This was all well and good, so long as one never left home, or only travelled north and south, but the idea of long-distance travel became more accessible with the advent of the railroads. On May 10, 1869, Leland Stanford, the president of the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, ceremonially tapped in the “Last Spike” at Promontory Summit, Utah, and the era of trans-continental rail travel across the United States had begun. But did the trains run on time then? And if they did, who was to say, because whose time did they run on?

By 1879, there were about 500 railroad companies through the country. These companies defined their own time system, based on the local time of one of the cities in their region. To travel just from Portland, Maine, to Buffalo, New York, took passengers through four different time systems. Something had to change.

In 1868, Charles Ferdinand Dowd, a Yale graduate from Madison, Connecticut, together with his wife, Harriet Miriam North, moved from North Granville to Saratoga Springs where they established the Temple Grove Ladies Seminary. He put his mind to the problem of trains and timetables. He did consider the uniform national time, as adopted in England, but studying solar times for 8000 locations across the United States revealed time differences of up to 4 hours, so this was impractical. In October 1869, Dowd presented a plan to the Convention of Railroad Superintendents, and, following their approval, in 1870, published a pamphlet entitled “System of National Time for Rail-Roads”. In it he proposed 4 regions across the country, with “Washington Time” the standard time for Atlantic States. (He later modified this to start at the 75th meridian west of Greenwich, to stop arguments over Washington or New York). Similarly, the Mississippi Valley States would be one hour behind Washington Time, Rocky Mountain States two hours behind and Pacific States three hours behind. These divisions were based on approximately 15 degrees of longitude, and within each division, the time would be uniform.

Unsurprisingly, there was reluctance to adopt the suggestion. Railway companies and their associated cities were unwilling to cooperate. Albany, New York City and Montreal were only different by a minute, but all insisted on keeping their own times. However, Dowd persisted with promoting his ideas and, on November 18th, 1883, at 9am, the regulator clock at the Western Union Telegraph System building in New York City was stopped. After precisely three minutes and 58.38 seconds the clock was restarted, and this was the birth of Eastern Standard Time. During the day, a similar event happened at three other locations across the country to start Central, Mountain Standard and Pacific Times.

Charles Dowd earned his PhD from New York University in 1888, and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Science, Letters and Arts of London in the same year, but continued working as principal of Temple Grove until his retirement in 1898. Temple Grove was then led by his son, Franklin D. Dowd, until it closed in 1900. In 1903 the buildings were sold to Mrs. Lucy Skidmore Scribner, and ultimately became part of Skidmore College.

Tragically, at approximately 5:30 pm on Saturday, November 12th, 1904, Dr. Dowd was killed by the southbound train No. 6 at the North Broadway crossing of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. According to newspaper reports, his body was thrown thirty feet and was “mangled almost beyond recognition”. The coroner, Dr. Richard H. McCarthy, in his last act before retiring at the end of 1904, declared the railroad company “wholly responsible for the death of the said Charles F. Dowd,” as the crossing was ungated and dangerous with extremely poor visibility for pedestrians.

A spherical sun dial honoring Dr. Dowd can be found on Church Street in Saratoga Springs, behind the Adirondack Trust Co.

Isobel Connell is a native of the United Kingdom and a retired engineer. She currently is a volunteer in the research room at Brookside Museum and a trustee at the Saratoga County History Center at Brookside Museum. Isobel can be reached at isobel@brooksidemuseum.org

Walter Prentiss Butler, was born in Saratoga Springs on April 1, 1863, at 596 Broadway. He was the son of Captain James P. Butler and Naomi Clements Butler. His father was Provost Marshal in Saratoga Springs at the time of the Civil War. Walter received his preliminary education in Saratoga Springs public schools and later attended North Granville Military Academy, Peekskill Military Academy, and Phillips-Exeter Academy. He completed his legal studies at Columbia University in 1887 and was admitted to the Bar of New York State the same year.

On July 9, 1890 Walter P. Butler married Mary Ashman Kilmer from a prominent local family. She was born in Rock City Falls, December 2, 1867, a daughter of Clarence Beekman Kilmer and Bessie Broughton. Her paternal grandfather, Chauncey Kilmer, an early Rock City Falls settler, was prominent in the paper mill industry which once flourished there. Clarence Kilmer was the president of the Empire Spring Company which eventually merged with the Congress Spring Company. Subsequently, the merged entity included the Granger’s glassworks located near Lake Desolation. The newly formed company relocated its glass factory along the railroad tracks in Congressville, on Empire and Congress Avenues in Saratoga Springs.

Mary’s great grandfather, Peter Kilmer, moved to Pages Corners, near Middle Grove, from the Dutch settlement near Kinderhook. Mary attended Mrs. Young’s Seminary at West Milton, as well as Public School No. 4, Saratoga Springs, before graduating from Temple Grove Seminary. Mrs. Butler was a member of the Board of Saratoga Hospital and served on the original Board of Trustees of Skidmore School of Arts, now Skidmore College. She also served as manager of the Hawley Home for Children.

Walter Butler was originally associated with the firm of Pond, French, and Brackett in Saratoga Springs. In 1897, Butler and Clarence B. Kilmer, his brother-in-law, formed their own partnership. Although the names in the practice changed with various associates over the years, Kilmer remained in the practice with Butler.

One of Butler’s more important cases was LaRepublique Francaise against the Vichy Spring Company, of Saratoga Springs, in which the Republic of France endeavored to enjoin the Vichy Company from using that name. This case in which Mr. Butler was counsel for the defense, was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States where in 1903 it was decided in favor of the Vichy Company of Saratoga Springs New York. In addition to that landmark case, Butler represented the New York State Comptroller in inheritance tax matters for many years.

For many decades the citizens of the Village and Town of Saratoga Springs hoped to secure a more economic and efficient form of government. Finally in 1915 the Saratoga Springs Businessmen’s Association who labored earnestly to bring this about, petitioned the State Legislature. The Town and Village were incorporated to become the City of Saratoga Springs on April 7, 1915 as a result of the Charter Bill, Chapter 229 of the Laws of New York. The Charter bill also gave the city the commission form of government requiring a mayor and four commissioners each with a single vote.

The first elections under the new form of government were held June 8, 1915, and the first city officials took office on June 22. The original city council members shown in the photo above included William Milliman, Public Safety; W. H. Waterbury, Finance; Mayor Walter P. Butler; N. Remick Thompson, Public Works; Michael J. Mulqueen, Accounts. During his term Butler took the lead in organizing city departments, rewrote the City Charter in its entirety and drafted all of the original city ordinances. Butler served one term of two years and refused re-election.

Among Butler’s civic activities were active participation in the American Red Cross, the Presbyterian Church, the Saratoga Lodge of Elks, and membership in the American, New York State and Saratoga County Bar Associations. He was a life member of the Commercial Law League of America. Butler, along with James H. King and Dr. N. C. Powers, organized the Public School Baseball League to benefit the youth of Saratoga Springs.

Walter P. and Mary Butler made their permanent residence at 22 Greenfield Avenue where they raised two sons. Their son Clarence Kilmer Butler became a senior partner in the family law firm. Their second son John Prentiss Butler pursued a military career.

Mrs. Mary Ashman Kilmer Butler died December, 1938, followed by her husband on January 7, 1942. Mr. and Mrs. Butler are buried in Greenridge Cemetery. Many tributes to Mr. Butler were shared in the local newspaper on January 8, 1942. Carleton J. King, local lawyer and future Congressman, wrote “In the death of Walter P. Butler, the nation has lost one of its finest citizens, this city one of its best leaders, neighbors and civic workers, his family a good, industrious and model father and I, one of my dearest friends and valued advisors. The city has lost its most outstanding citizen.”

Mary Ann Fitzgerald is the Saratoga Springs City Historian and Co-founder of the West Side Oral Narrative Project. Mary Ann can be reached at maryann.fitzgerald@saratoga- springs.org

On November 1, 1917, John W. Foles arrived at the home Pearl Marcellus in Rock City Falls seeking romance. It was a fatal mistake. What he hoped would be a carriage ride with a young girl whom he favored would result in his death. Foles was a 26-year-old employee at the Brown Paper Company in Rock City Falls.

Pearl Marcellus was born May 23, 1898, in the Town of Day, Saratoga County. She was daughter of Delbert and Elvira (Colson) Marcellus. By age five, her mother had died in childbirth along with her newborn sister, leaving her father to raise nine children. Pearl was the youngest child. Pearl and her father moved to Rock City Falls shortly after 1915, to a home a short distance north of the main road through town.

The story unfolded in court testimony by Pearl’s friend Margaret Seeley. The fatal day began with Pearl, age seventeen, was visiting her friend Margaret Seeley, age sixteen, at the Big Falls Tavern in Rock City Falls where Margaret and her father were living. Around 1 p.m., the girls left and walked to Pearl’s house. When they reached Pearl’s house, Pearl spent over an hour straightening up the kitchen area and she cleaned out a small stand. She put the contents of one of the drawers on top of the stand, which included a revolver. Then they went upstairs to Pearl’s bedroom to rest.

Around 4 p.m., John Foles arrived at Pearl’s home with his horse and buggy to take her for a ride. He demanded she let him in, and she told him to go away. He broke open the door and went upstairs to get her. Since both girls were undressed, she convinced him to go downstairs. He went back down to the kitchen. When the girls came down, an argument began with swearing and he grabbed her, but she was successful in getting him out of the house and she locked the door. She said to him “John Foles, don’t you come in here, or you’ll get something you won’t like”. Foles then, forced the door open again. Pearl reached for the revolver and fired one shot, that struck Foles in the left temple, killing him.

According to newspaper accounts, the girls left and caught the trolley to Greenfield where they met two married men for a prearranged date. One of the men drove them all in his car to a Saratoga roadhouse. After a few drinks, Pearl went upstairs with one of the men and it was unmentioned what transpired there.

Around 5 p.m. Pearl’s father returned home to find John Foles on the floor, half in the kitchen and half on the front stoop. Pearl was arrested when she and Margaret returned to Rock City Falls around 11 p.m.. The first thing Pearl said was “I didn’t mean to shoot him. I shot him because he wouldn’t get out and let me alone. I just wanted to scare him.” After her arrest she gave a full confession, and her friend Margaret collaborated the story.

On January 10, 1918, Pearl was indicted by a Grand Jury for manslaughter in the first degree in the death of John Foles. She pled “not guilty” to the charge. Her trial began on February 13, 1918. She did not testify and was convicted the next day after only 2 hours of jury deliberation. She was found guilty of manslaughter in the second degree and sent to Auburn State Prison on February 24, 1918, for not less than four years.

On February 21, 1918, a Notice of Appeal was filed by her attorney Clarence Kilmer on the grounds that improper testimony had been admitted into evidence. The Supreme Court of Saratoga County heard the case on November 13, 1918 and ruled that her actions after the killing prejudiced the jury against her. Her conviction was reversed, and a new trial was ordered.

The new trial was held in the Supreme Court on November 27, 1918. She was again found guilty of manslaughter in the second degree and sentenced to no less than four years at the Auburn State Prison. She served out her term, remaining in prison until September 20, 1922.

After her release she went to live in Athol, Town of Thurman, Warren County. In 1923, she married John Eldridge and he died the same year from injuries sustained when his car collided with a train in Thurman.

On Mar. 24, 1925, she married Kenneth Weaver of Athol. She never had any children but went on to live a normal life. She lived to be 73 years old and died December 10, 1971, in Athol.

Karen Staulters has been the Milton town historian since 2018, a founding member of Heritage Hunters of Saratoga County, and former archivist for the Upper New York Conference of the United Methodist Church. Karen is currently developing a Forgotten Crossroads video of Rock City Falls with the support of the Saratoga County History Center. She can be reach at jkstaul@aol.com.